Back in 1980, boxer Sugar Ray Leonard squared off with opponent Roberto Duran in what has become known as the No Mas fight. Late in the eighth round of this epic battle, Duran turned away from Leonard and said to the referee, βNo mas!β which is Spanish for βNo more!β Sugar Ray was declared the winner by technical knockout, and surely experienced an indescribable feeling of elation that no doubt eclipsed the sting of his earlier defeat to Duran a few months before.
As inexpressible as his joy was that day, however, it pales in comparison to the joy the Ephesians experienced when the Apostle Paul used those same βno moreβ words in his epistle to them:
βNow therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of Godβ (Eph. 2:19).
These dispensationally revolutionary words no doubt eclipsed the sting of the apostleβs earlier description of their position before God as Gentiles in time past:
βWherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentilesβ¦that at that time ye wereβ¦ strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the worldβ (Eph. 2:11,12).
Imagine the jubilation those dear Ephesian believers experienced upon learning that they had gone from being βstrangers from the covenants of promiseβ to being βno more strangersβ! Sugar Ray never had it so sweet!
But here we need to point out that the Gentiles were not just strangers from God in time past, they were strangers from βthe covenants of promiseβ that God made with Israel. These covenants of promise differed from the conditional βif-thenβ type covenant that God made with Israel in the Law in that they involved unconditional promises that God made to His people with no strings attached.
The Abrahamic covenant, for instance, was an unconditional covenant that God made with Abraham wherein He promised to give him the promised land βfor an everlasting possessionβ (Gen. 17:8). Inherent in that promise of the land is the promise of eternal life, for Abraham could not possess the land forever without living forever. It is this covenant of βpromiseβ (Rom. 4:16) that Paul says extends βto all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all.β In this covenant of promise, God promised Abraham eternal life in exchange for nothing more than believing the gospel that was preached to him, just as God graciously does for us (Rom. 4:3-5). Thus it is that we partake of the spiritual blessing of eternal life that was promised to Abraham without partaking of the physical blessing of the land that was promised to him.
The New Covenant was another unconditional covenant that God made with Israel (Jer. 31:31-34), a covenant to which we were once strangers but now are βno more strangersβ to the βspiritual thingsβ of this wonderful covenant of promise (Rom. 15:27) which we receive by grace. We partake of the spiritual blessings of the new covenant without the physical blessings of this covenant which belong to Israel, just as we partake of the spiritual blessing of eternal life that God promised Abraham without partaking of the physical blessing of the land that God promised him.
We know that there are some in the grace movement who hold that we are still strangers to the New Covenant, but when Paul says that we were βstrangers from the covenants of promiseβ in time past, but now βare no more strangers,β we have to assume that he is saying that we are no more strangers to the thing he mentioned we were strangers to just a few verses before, the covenants of promise. The Greek word and English word for βstrangersβ is the same.
Boxer Manny Pacquiao recently lost the βfight of the centuryβ after Floyd Mayweather landed 148 of his punches to his 81, with 348 of Mannyβs punches connecting with nothing but air. But armed with eternal life, and equipped with the spiritual things that once pertained only to Israel (Rom. 9:4,5), and furnished with βall spiritual blessings in heavenly placesβ (Eph. 1:3), you are now ready to step into the ring and βfightβ¦not as one that beateth the airβ (I Cor. 9:26). If youβre not familiar with all of these blessings that God has to offer people freely by His grace, why not get in the Book that you βmight know the things that are freely given to us of Godβ (I Cor. 2:12). Then, βfreely ye have received, freely giveβ (Matt. 10:8), and be ready to fight anyone who tries to put the saints under the conditional promises of the Law! source
